JGC starts carbon capture applying unused LNG cold energy

JGC Japan has started technical development on carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture by applying unused cold energy from LNG, its parent company JGC Holdings said on October 31.

The company said that these efforts support development and demonstration in a joint project of Toho Gas and Nagoya University, Tokai National Higher Education and Research System (Nagoya University).

The development was selected by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation in May 2022 as a Green Innovation Fund project for the development of technology for CO₂ separation, capture, and the like. JGC Japan has been contracted by Toho Gas as a participant since September this year.

This project is focused on Cryo-Capture technology, which applies unused LNG cold energy in CO₂ capture from the factory exhaust gas.

“The R&D builds on the work of Professor Koyo Norinaga of Nagoya University's Institutes of Innovation for Future Society, whose innovative technique for applying unused LNG cold energy to capture CO₂ from factory exhaust gas requires only a small amount of additional energy, which promises to reduce CO₂ capture costs,” JGC Holdings said.

Because natural gas is liquefied by cooling it to roughly -162°C, much cold energy is released when LNG is regasified at LNG receiving terminals. This underutilised cold energy has attracted attention as a potential energy source for generating power or electricity, the company said.